>> Hi, my name is Dr. Sharon Nesbitt.
I want to share with you the first time I encountered Jesus.
I was going through a very difficult time in my life.
My mom died when I was 18. She had liver cancer.
It was the year I graduated high school.
That was my senior year. I played basketball.
She couldn't make any of my games.
My mom had been vibrant. The first lady of our church.
My dad was a pastor and very trying time
in my life, very significant times.
She didn't make the graduation, obviously, or the prom.
And so very, very traumatic time in my life.
And I thought actually I was going to lose my mind.
Now, you got to understand, I grew up in church all my life.
I don't ever remember it not being in church.
And, so we heard about God.
We knew about God, but not really a personal relationship with God.
We knew the God of the Bible,
but didn't know the God of the heart.
We didn't know anything about miracles or believing in healing.
We prayed for them, but we really didn't study them.
We didn't read the book of Acts much.
And so the supernatural, miracles of healing,
was very elusive to us.
And then two and a half years later, my dad passed away.
And so I'm in this place in God.
And growing up, the denomination I grew up in,
they said that God needed another rose.
So He took my mom.
And He needed, you know, another servant, so
He took my dad.
And I was like, what kind of God is this?
What kind of God would do this to somebody that's young?
So I got really angry at God. I was mad at God.
I'm not going to lie to you.
I cursed God out and I used some words
that I don't even use no more, if you know what I mean.
I was very angry at God and the Church,
and anybody who tried to bring me any kind of solace,
any consolation, it, it didn't work
because I feel like that this loving God
did something so unfair to me.
And I was bawling in my apartment and bawling in my bedroom
and just crying out. I was lonely. I was by myself.
And though I had a lot of brothers
and sisters around me,
I still felt that ache and that void in my heart.
And I finally just cried out and said, if you're real.
Now, I'm drinking and smoking and doing all kinds of crazy stuff
because I'm trying to get rid of the pain in my heart.
It's been a long time and it still makes me sensitive.
And I said, if you're real, God, show me.
I don't want to know what Daddy and Mama had.
I need my own experience with You.
Show me something that I don't know.
And because we grew up in church,
we knew a lot of Bible stories and knew a lot of things.
But again, we didn't know God. And I'm just bawling.
In about 30 minutes in, I see this bright light.
It's almost like a door opened, a portal, now that I know, opened
and Jesus steps through the portal.
And some of you say, well, how do you know
it was Jesus? Because
He was pure love. And I saw scars.
And I knew from the Bible that He had scars
because I was always that Peter type.
I got to see it, let me see it. And He walks in and
He gives me the biggest hug you can imagine.
And it's like I melt in His arms
and all of the pain, all of the hurt,
all of the loneliness disappears. And
He stands me back from Him and says, you are My beloved.
And I'm weeping now because I'm in this dimension
of having this encounter of something I don't believe in.
And I'm like, my mind is going crazy
and my thoughts are everywhere. But it's such peace
that all of those emotions have been rolled into one,
and pure love is there. And He says, I love you,
My beloved, and says, you're going to preach the gospel,
My Word, and go around the world,
healing with healing and deliverance.
Well, there it goes again.
I don't believe in women preachers.
I definitely don't believe in healing and miracles
because we were never taught that. So
He gives me an assignment of something
that I really have to use my faith for now.
But I'm so excited that
He walks in my room and gives me this encounter.
Now that I'm holding on to this supernatural,
that I've got something that I've never experienced before
and something that my family has never experienced before.
And now I'm thinking, how am I going to tell them
that this crazy girl
who hates God just has an experience with Jesus?
Somebody said, what did He look like? What what did
He look like? Was He black? Was He white?
Was He Asian? I saw pure love.
I think whenever you are engaging Jesus, whatever you need
Him for, that's what He appears as.
And at that moment, I needed love. And
He's like, well, what did that look like?
You can't, you can't describe the essence of the pure love.
Is it white? Is it black?
It is an engaging that you can never articulate.
You know, some supernatural things you can't give language to you.
Just there are no words to describe.
Like, you know, I've been to heaven
and there's no words to describe the colors.
You can try, but it's pale in comparison to that. And
He begins to give me this narrative of
how I would go around the world
preaching the gospel, healing the sick
and bringing healing and deliverance.
And and then as soon as He walked in, He walks out.
And I had all of these questions I wanted to ask
Him and all of these things I wanted to say.
And as He's walking,
He says, and you're going to do it by faith.
Well, what is faith? I mean, we had a casual relationship.
So, you know, I've got all these questions now and engaging
Him in such an amazing way. And as soon as He comes in,
He goes out and says, do it by faith.
Now, you would think if Jesus comes
and gives you this amazing message that
He would blow on you, spit on you,
put some grace on you, put anointing, a mantle on you.
Like now I would be like, Jesus,
You could have just did all of this in one just swoop.
After that day, the pure love of God rested in my heart
and I began to see my life change and evolve.
The taste for alcohol and drugs was immediately gone,
and I had an insatiable appetite and desire
to read the Word of God and to worship.
So I was like finding all the books
I could and to begin to consume the Word of God.
Then I had to learn about this faith thing.
If this is how I'm going to operate.
I had to go on the journey of learning.
What is faith? How do you get faith?
How do you live by faith?
How am I going to do these miracles by faith?
And y'all know the first scripture that comes up,
the granddaddy of them all is Hebrews 11:1.
Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things, what? Not seen.
Man, coming from a traditional church,
reading that and trying to understand that.
But it was almost like I had a revelation
and a place where things begin to start being revealed to me.
And it was easy as I read the Word.
Then I had to work.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
So the encounter left me with a level of love
that I didn't have with my mom and dad.
And that was a love that I thought could never be replaced.
But I felt the love that I didn't feel with my mom and dad,
which their love was reserved as parental love.
But now I'm receiving the Father's love.
That love was shed abroad in my heart
by the Holy Ghost, in that moment.
And now I'm working on faith.
So the things that happen in this encounter
was the pure love of God.
Learning how to love again, trusting that love again,
and then learning what faith is.
Because faith was going to be the currency
of everything I do in the ministry
and how I transact between these different dimensions.
And faith was going to be the main,
the main authority in my life when I'm laying hands
and when I'm believing for people to be healed.
And can I tell you, I've been around the world.
I've seen tremendous things happen.
The miracles, the signs and wonders and the deliverance
that we've seen is just mind-boggling.
We've seen four people raised from the dead.
We've seen limbs grow out.
We saw a woman who had been in a wheelchair for 38 years
who was so severely handicapped. Her bones had fused together.
God raised her out of the wheelchair.
I mean, when He stepped in my room
and said we would go and see miracles, we have seen miracles.
All types of miracles. All types of healing.
But I had to build my faith and continue to operate in the love.
Why these gifts and anointings operate by faith,
backed by love, why? None of this works without love.
And that day,
Jesus allowed the pure love of God to come in my heart
so I could do ministry at another level.
If you're listening to this right now,
I really believe that the love of God
is going to be infused in you by a supernatural transfusion
that where you've had hurt, trauma,
grief in your life,
that at this very moment, just like
Jesus walked in my room,
you might not have that same encounter that
He would walk in your room, but I believe by faith
supernaturally that that love can be imparted in you
and that you'll begin to live your life by faith.
What is faith?
Calling those things that be not as though they were.
That my believed identity is, He loves me
with an everlasting love, unconditionally, eternally.
And that He's given me a platform called faith,
whereby I can supernaturally engage the heavens
and bring supernatural things to the earth.
I want to pray for you. Father, I thank
You for all of those that are listening even now,
that wherever they are in life, some of them may be like me.
I was mad. I was hurt, I was angry.
I ask for You to blanket them with that pure love.
Let that longing in their heart be filled.
Give them the tenacity, the boldness to walk in faith
and to fulfill all that
You have assigned them to do in Jesus' name.
Go and be great.